This year I was lucky enough to attend PBA Beauty Week in Las Vegas, Nevada. Here’s a little bit about why I was there:

As an esthiology student at Aveda Institute Charlotte, I applied to become a Beacon winner, which is an annual nationwide contest for cosmetology and esthiology students focused on the business and marketing side of the industry. Though Beacon, NAHA, and Cosmoprof have much more to do with hair than make-up, I applied anyway. I had to do 3 before and after pictures and create a marketing piece for myself, in addition to submitting a professional resume. I was thrilled to find out in May that I was one of 100 winners nationwide, and the amazing company that owns my school, Beauty Basics, paid for my flight and hotel in Las Vegas for the weekend of July 30 so I could attend! I’m hugely grateful to them for sending me over to get a taste of Beauty Week. Thank you BB!

As Beacon winners we were set up with a unique schedule of seminars and parties that allowed us to hear from motivational speakers, manufacturers, distributors, stylists, and salon owners, including some of the industry legends. As I said, most of this was directed toward hair stylists, but I still took a lot away from all the speakers and their advice. We got to attend exclusive parties and mingle with tons of people, and we also got to attend the North American Hairstyling Awards. If you didn’t know, NAHA is like the Oscars of hair. It was a fun night hosted by Miss Tabatha Coffey herself.. I’ll post pictures of that soon!

I stayed in the Luxor, which is connected to Mandalay Bay, where all of the Beacon, NAHA, and Cosmoprof events were held. I got to meet a bunch of other Beacon winners from schools that Beauty Basics owns; my roommate for the weekend had just graduated from Aveda Institute Dallas.

I met a lot of great people and took away a lot of really solid advice from the various speakers we heard from. Stedman Graham (yep, Oprah’s boyfriend!) was the opening speaker, just to give you an idea! He’s actually a great entrepreneur and motivational speaker in addition to his famous relationship. ;)

For now, here are the before and after pictures I sent in which won me a place in Vegas. I will list some of the products I used if I can remember what I used… it was done way back in March!

Katelyn’s wearing a custom-mixed lip color, Sable and Twinks eyeshadows, and Stud for her brows.

A few months back, I did the make-up for several actors in an overnight short film shoot at a local diner here in Charlotte. I was really lucky to participate and be surrounded by lots of young talent. We shot in a very small, 50s-style diner from about 8pm to 7am the next morning(!!). It was a long “day,” and by the end I was almost delusional with exhaustion, but we had a lot of fun and I can’t wait to see the finished product (I may even make a small cameo appearance!). I know next to nothing about shooting video and was really impressed with all of the girls and guys behind and in front of the camera. Here’s a behind-the-scenes video from that shoot, followed by the trailer for “Fork.” The behind-the-scenes video was shot by the awesome Enid Valu, whose photography (and videography!) I super-love. As soon as “Fork” is released, I’ll be sure to post a link here!

I am so excited about The Makeup Show NYC happening this weekend, and more excited that for the first time in 3 years I’ll be there! (See my posts about the 2008 Show here & here.) NARS Cosmetics will be exhibiting for the first time ever, and are joining some of the best brands in the make-up industry like MAC, Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics, Make Up For Ever, stila, and Anastasia Beverly Hills (among others) at this year’s Show.

When I went to The Makeup Show in 2008, I was a fairly new make-up artist, still working at MAC and totally enthralled with the industry. It sounds corny, but going to this show introduced me to Anastasia Beverly Hills, a brand I’d only ever heard about because it wasn’t yet in Nordstrom’s around the country, and it totally gave my interest in make-up a new direction. Now I’ve graduated from esthiology school, left MAC and continued freelancing on my own, and I’m just as bright-eyed & bushy-tailed as ever about The Show. It combines some of the greatest make-up artists in the industry with the best brands in the industry and goes even a step further by offering (free and by-reservation) hands-on workshops, seminars and keynotes on make-up products, applications & techniques. It’s a fantastic opportunity to learn and experience more.

I will be there all day on Monday, browsing, shopping, and catching some of the keynotes on the floor. I hope you’ll say hi if you see me there!

PS. Don’t quote me on it, but I have a sneaking suspicion MAC will begin selling their Surf Baby collection at The Show this weekend… we’ll see!

I forgot to mention before I left that I was moving to Charlotte, NC. Sorry for the lack of posts, but please look forward to more soon as I have acquired 17 (count them, SEVEN. TEEN.) new nail polishes since I last posted! OOPS!

This announcement follows a meeting last evening in Mexico City with MÂ·AÂ·C executives and Mexican government officials, including CONAVIM (ComisiÃ³n Nacional Para Prevenir y Erradicar la Violencia Contra las Mujeres/National Commission to Prevent and Eradicate Violence Against Women.)

During the meeting, held at the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this collective group committed to working together on the overall direction of the new initiative to help the women and girls of Juarez and to raise global awareness of their plight. MÂ·AÂ·C executives reiterated their deep regret and reinforced that it was never MÂ·AÂ·Câ€™s or Rodarteâ€™s intent to minimize the suffering of the women and girls of Ciudad Juarez.

In the coming weeks, MÂ·AÂ·C and Rodarte will be consulting with members of CONAVIMÂ´s advisory board, as well as other local and global experts, to develop a comprehensive framework that provides grants to local and international organizations with a track record of improving the lives of the women and girls in Juarez.

â€œWe are deeply sorry and apologize to everyone we offended, especially the victims, the women and girls of Juarez and their families. We have heard the response of concerned global citizens loud and clear and are doing our very best to right our wrong. The essence of MÂ·AÂ·C is to give back and care for the community and our initial handling of this makeup collection was not reflective of MÂ·AÂ·Câ€™s values. MÂ·AÂ·C and Rodarte are committed to using these learnings to raise awareness on this important issue and to leverage our unique platform to help the women and girls of Juarez,â€ said MÂ·AÂ·C President John Demsey.

â€œRodarte is committed to using creativity for positive social change. As designers, we strongly feel it is our responsibility to use ideas and actions for the good of our global community and are truly sorry for the offense we have caused. We are raising our voices in support of the strong women and girls of Juarez and joining others who are working internationally to improve their lives,â€ said Kate and Laura Mulleavy, designers of Rodarte.

Last week, MÂ·AÂ·C and Rodarte announced they would also be renaming the products and redesigning the marketing materials associated with the collection.

MAC Cosmetics has announced today that they will not only be donating $100,000 to a non-profit organization in Juarez, Mexico, but that, in a truly surprising and unprecedented move, they will be changing the product names in the collection which have been the source of recent controversy.

I have to say that despite my original post on the subject, I am pleased that MAC has chosen to change the names. I still believe that artists have the right to create art inspired by anything that evokes emotion in them. However, being that the names offended so many, it is proper that MAC do what it can, even after the fact, to fix it. Afterall, MAC’s motto is “all ages, all races, all sexes.” For their business it would be a very bad idea to risk completely alienating such a huge demographic. Unfortunately, despite their efforts, some customers and potential customers won’t be able to forgive the mistake.

I look forward to seeing what they change the names to, and to seeing how well the collection does. There are a few products I will definitely be picking up.